Theme Park Nerds Episode 2

Hey Nerds!
The second episode of our video blog is complete and ready to be enjoyed!

This week we talk about:
Mystic Manor at Hong Kong Disneyland, quite possibly the greatest dark ride ever created!
Springfield coming to Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando.  Are you ready for your Flaming Moe?
and Disney's Animal Kingdom's 15th Anniversary.  Disney isn't really celebrating it, so we thought it should get some attention.

If you want to make sure you are the first to see future clips and episodes, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel and like us on Facebook.

Ready, go!

Later nerds!

Mike

Legend of the Disco Yeti

Hey Nerds!
If anyone has been to Disney's Animal Kingdom in the past 6 years, you have no doubt ridden Expedition Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain (which is a SUPER long name for what everyone just calls "Everest").  Its a towering roller-coaster ride inside a faux himalayan mountain that features Disney's first coaster that goes both forwards and backwards.

At opening, the attraction also featured what was billed as the world largest audio animatronic, a HUGE yeti at the finale of the ride.  The Yeti, at opening, was truly impressive.  As your train entered the final cave of the mountain, you saw this gigantic monster hanging from a broken piece of track from above.  His body lunging towards you as his arm reached for your train as you zoomed by, seeming just out of reach of the beast.  It provided an epic ending to an amazing ride and gave Animal Kingdom the jolt it needed to inch it closer to become a full day park.  I had the pleasure of riding Everest when it first opened and the Yeti was truly a sight to behold.

Shortly after opening, however, the yeti started having problems that effected the entire attraction.  The motions that the animatronic was performing was starting to tear the entire mountain apart.  The yeti's size and manner in which he moved caused great strain on the structure that housed the roller-coaster and the beast.  Before the end of Everest's first year of operation, the yeti was shut down and posed in a manner so that he still seemed menacing while making no movement.  A strobe light was added to the cave to give the appearance of movement.

It was the addition of the strobe light that caused park fans to jokingly call the beast the "Disco Yeti" and the name has been adopted by many since he was shut down.

Rumors have persisted that Disney is attempting to fix the issues caused to the structure when the yeti moves, but there have been very little signs of progress.  Whenever the internet gets the slightest notion that ANY part of the yeti MAY be moving, the queue at Everest will swell, filled with hopeful internet surfers trying to catch a glimpse of yeti motion.  Usually, they are sorely disappointed.

The topic of the Disco Yeti came up between Parker and I.  See what we think.

See you on Everest whenever the yeti starts blinking his eyes!

Mike

Limited Time Dirt Pudding

What's happening Nerds?
I hope everyone had an awesome Earth Day earlier this week.  I know I did.  Disney is doing something special to celebrate Earth Day too.  No, it's not celebrate the anniversary of their Animal Kingdom theme park that is turning 15 this week AND happened to open on Earth Day in 1998.  They are serving dirt pudding!!!  YAY!  It's for a limited time only, so you had better hurry to your favorite Disney park before the end of the week (April 28th to be exact) to make sure you can get your very own Disney gummy worm covered in Oreo cookie crumbles and chocolate pudding.

If you can't make it to a Disney park in the next few days, I'm sure you could go to your local grocery store and make the same thing for under $5, but where's the magic in that?!

Of course, Parker and I have some thoughts about this Limited Time "Magic" offering.  See what we think.

Now that you're up to your ears in worm based magic, make sure you follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.  You know I am going to keep asking until you do :)

Later nerds!

Mike

Theme Park Nerds Facebook Page
Theme Park Nerds YouTube Channel

Closed Mountains (and hang gliders)

What up Nerds!
Have you ever wondered how Disneyland keeps its workers safe when they are performing maintenance to some of their famous buildings, like Space Mountain, Matterhorn, and Sorin' Over California?  Well so has the sate of California.  They wondered so much they decided to pop into Disneyland and do a little safety inspection and see what they could find.

The result was the sudden and immediate closure of Space Mt., the Tomorrowland side of The Matterhorn, and Sorin' Over California by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH).

If you would like to read the actual citations from DOSH, here's the link:
Disneyland Citations

This isn't the first time Disneyland, or any other California park, has had one of its attractions shut down or changed by the state and it won't be the last.  The remnants of DOSH's 2010 visit to the Alice in Wonderland ride are still present in the form of very visible "temporary" hand rails that were erected to protect anyone working on the outer portion of the second story of the attraction.  This was required to get the ride back open and get DOSH off the mouse's back.

Obviously, the closure of Space, Sorin', and Matterhorn isn't the first time Disney has had to deal with changing policies regarding the state of California's stance on worker safety.  In fact, California has some of the most detailed, strictest labor laws in the country, and it should come as no surprise to an employer as large as Disneyland that the laws were updated.  I am a little baffled that no one in the Anaheim theme park offices took note of the safety changes and didn't think to start some sort of process to assure the state they were taking appropriate actions to appease the state, especially when the result would be the closure of major attractions and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

Say what you will about the fairness of California constantly changing its labor laws and its expectations that employers constantly update their facilities to whatever the government deems fit.  Its a fact of life when you do business and employ workers in the state of California that you will have strict guidelines to conform to and failing to do so will impact your business.  Disney can drag its heals all it wants and the fans can complain all they want about how "it hasn't been an issue in 50 years, why is it an issue now?!?!?" but none of that matters when if comes to the law.  Besides, its not like Disney doesn't have the means, manpower, and insight to comply with any new law if they truly wanted to.  Like any business owner, they tried to spend as little as possible on updates to their product that they didn't think were necessary.  They just got caught, that's all.

Here is Parker and my take on the situation.  Enjoy!

See you at Space Mountain Nerds!  (Whenever it reopens)

Mike

Limited Time Fairies

Hey there nerds!
So this year, Disney Parks big marketing campaign is "Limited Time Magic," a weird attempt to turn random events demanded by a very small portion of the theme park visiting population into legitimate, marketable things.  It's weird, but if odd event being highlighted the week you are at the park, I guess it could be cool.

Most limited time magic events happen for around a week and are usually centered around some sort of food item, show, or character that you can't see the rest of the year.  It's mostly Disney digging through their theme park vault and digging out and dusting off anything that a group of people may mildly care about.

Last week was fairy week at Magic Kingdom and Disneyland.  Neither Parker or I had the pleasure of participating in limited time fairies, but that doesn't stop us from talking about it!

Check out our excitement about Limited Time Fairies in the outtake from our last Theme Park Nerds episode.

Now that you have enjoyed that video, please take a moment to follow us on twitter @themeparknerds so you keep up to date when we say something else awesome.

Later Nerds!

Mike

Theme Park Nerds YouTube Channel
Theme Park Nerds Facebook Page

Mater and Planes

Hey Nerds!

Mike here.  So if you have watched our first episode of the Theme Park Nerds video blog (and I know you have, because you're awesome)  you know Parker and I got off on a bit of a tangent while we were discussing the moving of The Festival of the Lion King theater in preparation for Avatar Land.

If for some reason you haven't yet seen episode one, here's the link.  It's required viewing before continuing the blog :)
Theme Park Nerds, Episode 1

So here's the thing...
As I said in the video, I have my doubts that Avatar Land will ever see the light of day.  My personal hunch is Disney announced Avatar Land to combat Universal Orlando's announcement of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter expansion and Transformers at Universal Studios Florida. Universal one upped the mouse, and they needed to announce something big to make it look like Disney wasn't sitting on their hands while Universal was being awesome.

I don't think Disney has the confidence in the Avatar film (or franchise, if you believe in telling the future) to get behind a $500mil+ expansion to Disney's Animal Kingdom.  If they truly were going full force with the expansion, I think the internet world would know MUCH more about what's happening because Disney would be "leaking" random details to build excitement for the anticipated 2015 opening.  That isn't happening.  Not only are random details and generic hype not seeping into the world, but Disney is doing nothing to prepare their theme park guests to Animal Kingdom for the eventual arrival of Pandora and the Na'vi.  If we use the construction of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure as a template for what Disney does when they ARE building a $500mil + expansion to one of their parks, we should at the very least be seeing the characters from the movie doing meet n' greets around Animal Kingdom.  Years before Cars Land was a reality, we saw Mater and Lightning McQueen out and about in California Adventure, not necessarily to directly hype the new land, but to get guests accustomed to those characters having a presence in the park (and because little boys LOVE Cars and will do anything for their true god, Mater).  Why are the Na'vi not wondering around DAK?  Their story fits in fine with the concept of Animal Kingdom.  Sure, they can't hang out in Dinoland, Asia, or Africa, but there are plenty of trails between the lands of the park that have no theme where a Pandora backdrop could be set up for photo ops.  Despite Disney's insistence that Avatar Land is happening, we are seeing no evidence to support this.

As we discussed in the TPN video blog, Disney is in the process of moving The Festival of the Lion King theater to Africa.  I do not take this as ANY indication that Avatar Land is happening.  Festival of the Lion King should be in Africa.  It does not belong in Camp Minnie Mickey, which is a area themed to american summer camps and shoehorned into Animal Kingdom at the last minute during construction because the park's budget was way out of whack prior to opening.  It was conceived as a temporary land that would be demolished as soon as the park got off it's feed and something better could be constructed.  The problem was, Festival of the Lion King, a show built on the cheap from old Disneyland parade floats, became a HUGE hit.  It's possibly the best daytime show on Disney's Orlando property.  It won't be closing anytime soon, but ANYTHING is going to eventually take the place of Camp Minnie Mickey, Lion King has to move.  And where better to move the show to where it rightfully belongs, in Africa.

Once Festival of the Lion King is moved, I imagine Camp Minnie Mickey will disappear from Animal Kingdom guide maps, the path to the area will disappear, and Disney will pretend the land never existed.  Eventually, something will be built there.  Something with the staying power and broad audience appeal to warrant a multi-million dollar expansion to the park.  I do not believe, however, it will have anything to do with Avatar.

Parker, of course, has his own opinions on what will be built on top of Camp Minnie Mickey.  He got into what he thinks is coming in one of the out takes from our video blog.  Check it out here.

So nerds, what do you think is going to happen at Disney's Animal Kingdom?  Do you think Avatar Land will see the light of day?  If not, what do you hope will rise out of Mickey and Minnie's day camp?  Planes Land?????

Until Next Time,

Mike

Theme Park Nerds YouTube Channel
Theme Park Nerds Facebook Page

Shrek 4D

Hey there Nerds!
What is everyone thoughts on Shrek 4D at the Universal Parks?  As far as I am concerned, it's a quality 3D movie with some interesting in theater effects that make for a good time.  I first experienced the show in Universal Studios Florida, where the show is so popular, they built a second theater to double the capacity (though to be fair, they only run both shows when the park is uber busy).

For those of you that haven't been to a Universal park lately (and if you haven't FOR SHAME!  They're awesome!)  The basic story is you are being led into a torture chamber in Dulock shortly after the events of the first Shrek movie.  After a delightful animatronic and video based pre-show, we learn Lord Farquaad has returned as a ghost and is causing trouble.
I hope you are paying attention, because almost NOTHING that happens in the pre-show matters for the main movie :)
You enter the movie theater, which has a very classic movie theater look.  Comfy chairs, big red theater curtains covering the screen, ect.  I would go into the details of the movie, but why when you can just watch it on Netflix!

If you search for "Shrek" on Netflix, you will find a group of movies titled "Dreamworks Spooky Stories"
Within that grouping, there is a short film titled "The Ghost of Lord Farquaad".  That is the full movie from Shrek 4D in the Universal Parks, just minus the 3D, the random squirt gun effects, the bouncy chairs, and the air tubes that blow you from the back (ew, not like that!)

The movies and pre-shows at the US Universal Parks are identical.  The theaters, however, are not.  At Universal Studios Hollywood, they used an old live stage venue for the Shrek movie.  The result is it seems you are watching a movie from the end of a VERY long hallway.  The theater is long and narrow, and feels a bit awkward.  Still worth seeing, but not as good a theater experience as that in Orlando.

That's my take on Shrek, but my Theme Park Nerds co-host, Parker, has a bit of a different take.  You can see what he thinks by clicking here.

So what's your take on Shrek 4D?  Delightful theme park adventure, or pure torture?

Later Nerds!

Mike

Theme Park Nerds YouTube Channel
Theme Park Nerds Facebook Page

Season 1, Episode 1

Hello Nerds,
Parker and I have published our first video blog!  This week, we talk about Gatekeeper at Cedar Point, Full Throttle at Magic Mountain, Transformers at Universal Studios Florida, and the changes for Avatar Land at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Check it out on our YouTube Channel
Theme Park Nerds YouTube Channel

Also, if you like what you see (and hear, cause that's really the point) please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @themeparknerds.

Later Nerds!

Mike

Theme Park Nerds YouTube Channel
Theme Park Nerds Facebook Page

The first blog!

Hello fellow theme park nerds!
Welcome to the Theme Park Nerds blog.  My name is Mike, and, along with my friend Parker, we will be video blogging about things that interest us in the amusement park industry.  Hopefully you all enjoy what we put out there.

You can check out our YouTube channel at
http://www.youtube.com/user/ThemeParkNerds

Also, please follow us on twitter @themeparknerds

You can also like us on Facebook by searching Theme Park Nerds.

We have lots of fun stuff planned, so tune in, enjoy, and comment on whatever you love or think is the worst thing to ever be said in all of humanity.  Because if you are a true theme park nerd, its generally one or the other.

Thanks for paying attention to us!

Mike

Theme Park Nerds YouTube Channel
Theme Park Nerds Facebook Page